Franken Tries to Delay Defeat

The Minnesota Secretary of State is due to certify the Senate election in that state which will show Norm Coleman winning by a scant 215 votes. Challenger Al Franken is channeling his inner Al Gore:

With the State Canvassing Board set to certify the results in Minnesota’s unresolved Senate race Tuesday, the campaign of comedian Al Franken (D) has asked the board not to officially call the race until the votes of several voters who cast absentee ballots are included in the final count.

The Franken campaign filed a brief with the five-person board Monday, demanding that every vote be counted.

“We would ask them to not certify the vote count,” Marc Elias, a Democratic election lawyer working for Franken, said in a news conference Monday.

Once certified as the winner, Norm Coleman will certainly be in a position of increased power in the recount process and efforts by Franken will be seen as a case of being a sore loser. There's also another issue with the outstanding ballots as explained by Red State:

Notice they aren't asking to count every legal vote, but every vote. This is important because some people who voted straight Democrat still couldn't bring themselves to vote for an ass like Franken. Nonetheless, Franken wants the person to be deemed a Franken voter because the person voted for every other Democrat.
Having spent years surrounded by fawning admirers paid to worship him, Franken just can't handle the real world where everybody knows his name and hates him.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty said on Fox News Sunday that he thinks the recount process will be fair and completely open. Let's hope so.